Williams - Naturalists at sea: scientific travellers from Dampier to Darwin

Published with assistance from the Annie Burr Lewis Fund

Copyright 2013 Glyn Williams

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers.

For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact:

U.S. Office:

Europe Office:

Set in Adobe Caslon Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Williams, Glyndwr.

Naturalists at sea : scientific travellers from Dampier to Darwin / Glyn Williams.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-300-18073-2 (cloth : alkaline paper)

1. Natural historyHistory. 2. Scientific expeditionsHistory. 3. Ocean travelHistory. 4. NaturalistsHistory. 5. TravelersHistory. 6. NaturalistsBiography. I. Title.

QH11.W45 2013

508dc23

2013010060

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Sophie Forgan

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP

Plates

Engraving after drawing by Lieutenant Peircy Brett, A View of the Watering Place at Tenian, 1748. National Library of Australia, an10098525.

Plants found in New Holland and Timor, in William Dampier, A Voyage to New Holland, vol. I, 1703, Tab. 4. Author's collection.

Herbarium specimen of Swainsona formosa (Sturt's desert pea). Oxford University Herbaria, Department of Plant Sciences.

Sven Waxell, an Aleut in his baidarka, detail of his chart of the St Peter, 1742. Archives of the Ministry of Marine, Petrograd.

Sven Waxell, drawing of a fur seal, sea lion and sea cow on his chart of Bering's voyage, 1741. Alaska State Library Historical Collections.

Georg Dionysus Ehret, illustration of Linnaeus's system of classification, 1736. The Natural History Museum, London.

Sydney Parkinson, bougainvillea plant (Bougainvillea spectabilis), 1768. The Natural History Museum, London.

Sydney Parkinson, Tahitian breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), 176871 The Natural History Museum, London.

Sydney Parkinson, Kangaru, Endeavour's River, 1770. The Natural History Museum, London.

Peter Brown, The Blue-Bellied Parrot, in Nouvelles illustrations de zoologie, 1776, plate VII. The British Library Board (1255.k.9).

The Fly-Catching Macaroni, published by M. Darly, 1772. National Library of Australia, an9283268.

The Simpling Macaroni, published by M. Darly, 1772. National Library of Australia, an2983270.

George Forster, chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarcticus), 1772. The Natural History Museum, London.

John Francis Rigaud, Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster in Tahiti, 1780. Private collection.

George Forster, devilfish (Mobula mobular), 1774. The Natural History Museum, London.

John Webber, A Sea Otter, (Enhydra lutris), 1784. Author's collection.

John Ellis, A Wired Cage for bringing over the Bread Fruit Tree, in Description of the Mangostan and Bread-Fruit, 1775, plate IX. The British Library Board (34.e.21).

Gaspard Duche de Vancy's drawings of receptacles for holding plants during the expedition of La Prouse, eighteenth century. Bibliothque Mazarine, Paris, France/Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library.

Nicolas Ozanne, Massacre of De Langles, 1797. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

Francis Boott, Joseph Banks's herbarium and library at Soho Square, 1820. The Natural History Museum, London.

Eucalyptus globulus (blue gum), in Labillardire's Atlas pour server la relation du voyage le recherche de la Prouse, 1800. National Library of Australia, an20974042.

Engraving by Jacques Louis Copia, after Jean Piron, Sauvages du cap de Diemen prparant leur repas, 1793. National Library of Australia, an20973389.

Jos Cardero. Isla de Naos (Puerto de Panama), 1790. Museo Naval, Madrid.

Jos Cardero, Pira y sepulcros en el puerto de Mulgrave, 1791. Museo Naval, Madrid.

Juan Ravenet, La Muerte de Antonio Pineda, 1792. Museo Naval, Madrid.

Juan Ravenet, La experiencia de la Gravedad en Puerto Egmont, 1794. Museo Naval, Madrid.

Plan of the quarter-deck of HMS Investigator, 1801. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

C.A. Lesueur's drawing of Pron excavating Aboriginal cremation site, in Louis de Freycinet's Atlas accompanying Voyage de Dcouvertes aux Terres Australes, 1817, plate XVI. National Library of Australia, an7573653.

C.A. Lesueur, Mollusques et zoophytes, in Voyage de Dcouvertes aux Terres Australes, 1807, plate XXX. National Library of Australia, an7573695.

C.A. Lesueur, Franois Pron, frontispiece of loge Historique de Franois Pron, 1811. Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Tasmania.

La Nouvelle-Hollande mieux connue: Vgtaux utiles naturaliss en France, title-page of Voyage de Dcouvertes aux Terres Australes, 1824. National Library of Australia, an20231293-v.

Ferdinand Bauer, sand palm (Livistona humilis), in Botanical Drawings from Australia, 1801, plate 225. The Natural History Museum, London.

William Westall, Chasm Island, native cave painting, 1803. National Library of Australia, an4565185.

Matthew Flinder's chart of Australia or Terra Australis, sheet III. The National Archives (ADM22/436).

P.A. King, Fuegian (Yapoo Tekeenica), frontispiece of Fitzroy's Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of the Beagle, vol. II, 1839. The Natural History Museum, London.

.

Four Species of Galapagos Finch with Different Beaks, in Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches, 1870. The Natural History Museum, London.

.

Darwin's microscope at Down House. A.J. Southward, Marine Biological Association.

Map

Lieutenant Brett's drawing of the watering place on the island of Tinian in the North Pacific where Commodore Anson's Centurion stopped during the circumnavigation of 17404. Palms and citrus trees are shown, but dominating the foreground is a breadfruit tree, whose fruit was constantly eaten by us during our stay upon the Island instead of bread, and so universally preferred to it, that no ship's bread was expended.

An unknown artist's drawings in William Dampier's Voyage to New Holland of Plants found in New Holland and Timor. Fig. 2 is of the plant later known as Sturt's desert pea. The accompanying notes by the botanist John Ray describe the plant as having no leaves, but scarlet flowers with a deep purple spot.